For example, if you are interested in visiting zoos or gardens around Suzhou, LY.com pinpoints the right spots within a few clicks. Every place of interest comes with user reviews. If users are satisfied with the reviews, they can purchase tickets directly on the site.

After the $200 million cash injection, Ctrip will become Tongcheng’s second largest shareholder after the company management.

This investment will result in a tricky shareholding structure, commented Barclays analysts Alicia Yap, Anand Ramachandran, Joyce Zhou and Gregory Zhao, not in the least because Tencent is a major shareholder:

On 9 April 2014, eLong (LONG), the key OTA competitor to Ctrip, officially announced that it had entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Tongcheng to be the exclusive provider of agency hotel and group-buy hotel inventory for Tongcheng in China. Meanwhile, Tongcheng will become the exclusive provider of scenic attraction ticket inventory for eLong.

Early this year, according news report (Sina Tech, 16 February 2014), Tongcheng received new funding from a Tencent-led investment amounting to Rmb500mn, and Tongcheng’s management still owned the control of the company after that fund-raising round. And per eLong’s 2013 annual report, Tencent (0700.HK) held about 15.7% of eLong’s total outstanding shares.

But on the sunny side, competition between Ctrip and Tongcheng will likely tone down:

At the beginning of 2014, according to news report (XinhuaNet. 17 Feb 2014), Ctrip and Tongcheng initiated a ticket pricing war at thousands of scenic destinations. Ctrip planned to invest Rmb200mn in cash rebates and marketing campaigns to grab market share from Tongcheng, and Tongcheng responded by investing Rmb400mn not only for defense but also for business expansion into domestic and overseas traveling.

We believe with the direct investment by Ctrip into Tongcheng would likely help to improve the relationship between the two companies and could eventually lead to the termination of the pricing war, which might lead to a positive impact on Ctrip’s packaged tour growth and margin improvement.

About Emerging Markets Daily

Emerging markets have been synonymous with growth, but the outlook for individual nations is constantly changing. Countries from Brazil and Russia to Turkey face challenges including infrastructure bottlenecks, credit issues and political shifts. Barrons.com’s Emerging Markets Daily blog analyzes news, data and research out of emerging markets beyond Asia to help readers navigate the investment landscape.

Barron’s veteran Dimitra DeFotis has been blogging about emerging market investing since traveling to India and Turkey. Based in New York, she previously wrote for Barron’s about U.S. equity investing, including cover stories and roundtables on energy themes. Dimitra was among the first digital journalists at the Chicago Tribune and started her career as a police reporter at the Daily Herald in the Chicago suburbs. Dimitra holds degrees from the University of Illinois and Columbia University, where she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in the business and journalism schools. She studies multiple languages and photography.